Scenes of October

Thanksgiving in Canada takes place in early October, and that is more or less the time that all the crops are in, and the gardens have been finished, and the landscape turns to browns and golds. The weather gets nippy, and the frost settles on the ground at night, often, and there is sometimes even snow by now on the Prairies, even though it may not last. Sometimes a late summer comes out to embrace us with warmth once again, before the deep freeze of winter starts its relentless grip on our land and sanity.

In France, here in the Tarn, October brought a few nice days of +30 weather, and some rain. Before the rain, the yards were crunchy and brown, and not that pleasant to walk on barefoot. But in October, the grass started to turn green, and more flowers started to bloom after the rain - it was magical for us. Never have we experienced blooms and growth and rejuvenation like that in October!

Likewise, the harvests happening in and around the Tarn this October presented us with very different pictures. 8 foot corn crops, being cut and stacked in the corn cribs. New crops peeking through the soil on other land we thought was fallow. Sunflowers, all brown and no longer following the sunshine with their round faces, cut and harvested. These visuals are very different from the wheat fields, and canola, and barley of our home on the Prairies.

(Lloyd, at 6 feet tall, reaching as high as he can,

is still dwarfed by the corn.)

(The same field as above, with a single swath around the edge.)

(The corn cobs stacked in the corn crib across the road from
the field in the above pictures. These cribs were all over the
region in October, as the farmers harvested their crops.

But this constant blossoming of the summer flowers, and the rejuvenation of the green yards, even as the leaves start to turn on the trees and the vines... That is a visual treasure for us. The brown of the soil, rather than the black earth of our home. That is a mystery that still startles us when we notice it from the corner of our eyes, and remember, yes, we are indeed, far from home.

(A view of a small village in the region, from an observation point
not too far from our home. The lush greenery after an October rain
is not done justice in this photo.